VUFKU (All-Ukrainian Photo Cinema Administration) existed for less than nine years (1922-1930), but it managed to release over 140 fiction films, several hundreds of non-fiction films and newsreels, dozens of animations, gain fame of “Ukrainian Hollywood,” and take under its control all aspects of the cinematic process – filmmaking, distribution, film press, propaganda, and education. From over 140 full-length fiction films made by VUFKU, about 60 films are considered lost. A lot of the surviving films have come down to us incomplete (without one or more parts).

The website VUFKU. Lost&Found is the first online collection of Dovzhenko-Centre’s media library and is perhaps the only online resource providing comprehensive information on VUFKU.

The mission of the VUFKU. Lost&Found project is to search and return to Ukraine the lost films of the 1920s. Traces of some of the lost films of that time can be found in international archives. Meanwhile, we are collecting archive materials about the lost films, restoring their contents, learning the context of their release.

These searches and analysis, restoration of films and their return to the cultural circulation require financial support. Donating to our fundraising campaign, which will start in October 2019, you will be able to contribute to the restoration of Ukrainian cinema.

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Explosion

Explosion

1927, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa), 6 parts / 1,580-1,782 m

Director:
 Panteleimon Sazonov
Scripwriter:
 Mykola Liadov
Cameraman:
 Fedir Verigo-Darovskii (Veriho-Darovskyi), Yosyp Hudyma
Artist:
 Heinrich Beisenherz
Cast:
 Sergey Minin (Petro Larionov, a coalminer), Oleksandr Chuverov (Osadchyi, a worker, Socialist), A. (?) Olenich-Aleksieieva (Pasha, his daughter), Borys Zahorskyi (Klymovych, a mine engineer), Kostiantyn Harin (a worker, drunkard), Mykola Kuchynskyi (Omelchenko, a worker), Oleksandr Nikitin (Baibakov, a mine manager), F. Britan (Zizi, his daughter) T. Ruzhytskyi (a shareholder), Oleksandr Malskyi (Steiher), Dikhof (Osadchyi’s wife), Anton Klymenko (Skakun, a worker), Osyp Merlatti (Kozytskyi, a colonel), P. Matviienko, A. (O?) Sashyn, I. Syzov, Dmytro Fedorovskyi (coalminers), T. Azarova (a moonshiner), Anastasiia Kozhevnikova (a telephone operator), Volodymyr Zanoza, Yosyp Hudyma (Cossacks)

World War I. Miners at one of Donbas mines led by active and revolution-inspired workers Larionov and Osadchyi come out on strike because of harsh treatment of the mine administration and the engineer Klymovych in particular.

The administration decides to come to terms with miners separating them from the main troublemakers. The young miner Larionov is fired, recruited to the Tsar army and sent to the front. The engineer Klymovych rapes Pasha, Larionov’s fiancée, the daughter of the second revolutionary activist Osadchyi. The wounded Larionov returns from the front. Pasha does not dare telling him what happened and drowns herself. Klymovych rescues the girl clueless of whom he is rescuing… Larionov calls workers for a new strike. The administration manages to put the revolutionary activist in jail. They also get rid of Osadchyi paying a drunkard worker who cuts the rope during Osadchyi’s rappelling in the mine.

Soon, there is an explosion at the mine. Pretending to contain the accident, the engineer immures active workers who are underground at that time. Violent uprisings begin at many mines. Punitive squads cruelly punish the rebels.

The film was released on 11 January 1927 in Kyiv and on 31 January 1928 in Moscow. The film is lost.

EXPLOSION, Kino No 9, 1926